Art Prom honors David Bowie

Students came dressed in their best ‘70s glam ready to dance as a tribute to their favorite artist David Bowie. From his 1977 sailor look to his iconic lightning bolt tattoo, Bowie was represented at the annual Art Prom hosted by the Webster University Print Club.

The event was held on Saturday, April 2 in the Visual Art Studio.

Junior printmaking major Mia Mendoza attended the event last year. This semester, she was able to help plan it.

Mendoza said Art Prom is the same every year, just with a different theme. She said this year, it was between David Bowie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Muppets and a paint party where everyone would throw paint at each other.

“He’s just such a big influence in the art world and we all know he died this year,” Mendoza said. “In some capacity, everyone knows him so we thought it would be a really fun idea for the music, decorations and people to dress up in the way that he did because he was so iconic.”

Webster student Gabrielle Christiansen was the events DJ. Christiansen, who transferred to Webster two semesters ago, was determined to make Art Prom this year after missing it last year.

“It’s a good turnout,” Christiansen said. “I wish they would let us play David Bowie more.”

Studio Arts major Carrie Lax said she helped make stars and decorations for the event. She said her favorite Bowie song is I’m Afraid of Americans featuring Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails.

“It talks about people with slicked back hair and people who really like cars,” Lax said.

Mendoza said putting on Art Prom is about getting the permits together and setting up decorations.

“The process of planning is ideally having meetings and we all talk about it and crowd source what the theme should be and getting groups together to go shopping for decorations,” Mendoza said. “We have to go through SGA to get it approved and to get the program polling money approved.”

Mendoza said they are already throwing around ideas for next year’s Art Prom. One idea that was mentioned was a Greek/Futuristic theme.

“It sounds really weird and a little creepy and I would love it,” Mendoza said.